by Scott Howard | Feb 4, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
One of the pretty cool things about radio ads is the way that for years, it was the last bit of advertising messaging that a consumer was exposed to before deciding where to spend their money.
Think about it for a second.
You may have seen an ad on television last night for __________, but today as you decide to visit _________, you hear an ad for an alternative to _________ and decide to go there instead.
This happens a lot.
Lunch for example.
Many folks have no idea where they are going to grab their mid-day meal until they hop in the car and start down the road. At 12:05pm, they hear an ad for today’s special at Steve’s Soup and Salad Shack and turn their automobile in the direction of Steve’s. A few minutes later, they are enjoying the daily special they heard about a few minutes earlier on the radio.
This often works to change minds too.
Instead of pulling into the drive thru line for another burger that they were planning on grabbing, they hear about the fresh and healthy options at the sub shop and change their mind. How many times have you done this?
This power of radio being the last advertising medium a consumer is exposed to has changed a bit over the years.
While 90% of adults still listen to a radio station every week, there are some additional tools you can use to capture a consumers attention, right before they decide to buy. I’m thinking about the internet, and the advertising options that we now have that were not even in existence a few years ago. 
Here’s an example of how I can help your business invite customers to spend their money with you using both of these methods…
First off, a radio advertising campaign that gives people a reason to visit you, and secondly a digital display ad campaign that acts as a reminder to people that you are available to take care of them. (It’s a bit more detailed and customized than that, but that’s one example).
Both of those, and the coordination of the messaging is what I can help you with via WOWO radio and Federated Digital Solutions. Just reach out to me and let’s talk.
by Scott Howard | Jan 29, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I have talked to many people who have asked this question in some form, “How does advertising work?”
The people asking are not stupid. And the question is not stupid. It is not a question that is asked enough by people who need to know the answer.
Doctors, business owners, sales managers, teachers, health care administrators, business managers, mechanics, all have asked me this basic question.
Each person has expertise in their profession, but the concept of advertising was not on their list of priorities to “things to know about”.
So today we kick off a series that addresses the basics and as always feel free to leave a comment or drop me a note with a question or two.
Advertising is paid promotion. That is the most basic, simple definition.
A business pays an advertising venue to promote their business or event. Examples include print ads in newspapers and magazines, television ads, radio rads, billboards on the side of the road.
Other examples are digital versions of the above, like ads you see on websites or on a youtube video. There are product placement or sponsored content forms of advertising. 
American Idol was one of the first TV shows to really feature these with Coke that the judges would have prominently placed at their table. Even though American Idol’s popularity continues to decline, the use of product placement as a form of advertising continues to grow in popularity.
Remember that advertising is paid promotion and you will see plenty of examples all around you.
Before we wrap up this introduction, let me toss out a few examples of what is not advertising:
News stories and press releases. If there is no exchange of money or items of value than it is simply not advertising. Same thing with interviews and public service announcements. Or the Bulletin Board at my favorite coffee shops. If it is free, it is not advertising.
The Gray Area: There are a few things to be aware of.
- Sometimes an advertiser will get “extra value” in the form of free ads that are placed along with their paid ads. This should be considered part of the overall paid advertising package because the free ads wouldn’t exist if there were no paid ads.
- Infomercials. Radio and TV will sell blocks of time as infomercials. These should have an announcement at the beginning and end staying that it is paid programming.
- My radio station, WOWO Radio, has a few infomercials that air on the weekends. Our prime time talk show hosts also conduct interview segments with people who are also spending advertising dollars with us, but most of those interviewed are on at the invitation of the program host as a guest.
- Endorsements and Testimonials are sometimes an effective way of enhancing an ad campaign. 90% of the time, those people who are lending their good name and credibility to a product or service are also receiving a fee for that extra endorsement. That should not diminish the credibility, as a matter of fact, the hosts on my radio station have very high standards as to who they will endorse because their own credibility is on the line too.
When someone says that their advertising isn’t working, there are way too many reasons to accept that on face value, but we’ll talk about in the future.
by Scott Howard | Jan 21, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Last year I kicked off the new year with a brief series to help you be more successful when deciding how to spend your advertising and marketing budget.
This week I am sharing that information again with some updates.
Today we will go over the last 3 items on this list from a couple days ago:
You need to know who you are from 4 different perspectives:
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Your insider knowledge of who you are
-
Your current customers perspective of who you are
-
Your competitors perception of who you are.
-
Your best potential customers perception of who you are.
Yesterday I gave you a big assignment and it is impossible to have completed it in the past 24 hours because it takes a few days to just do the bare minimum. Read it here.
However some of you want to know how to do the other three (#’s 2, 3, and 4 on the list above) so I’ll give you some help today. Save this in your bookmarks or favorites for future reference so you can do these exercises after you complete the first one.
What is your current customers perspective of who you are? You should already be doing this kind of research by asking your customers about their experience with you. I know a muffler shop that would give you a discount on your next visit if you left them a review. There are tons of ways to do this including an online survey with a service such as SurveyMonkey and others, but guess what? Your current customers are already telling others about you online, if you know where to look.
Besides the social media conversations and rants that occur on Facebook and the like, there are also plenty of review sites where your customers are talking about you. The problem you face is how to get this important information in a timely manner. I’ll tell you how in a moment.
What are your competitors perception of you? Have you ever hired an employee who used to work for your competitor? Ask them. It’s that simple. You can also do some “secret shopping” and send an intern to your competitor and have them ask what they think of you, but that is somewhat complicated and probably not necessary.
The question I often asked when I ask the business owners about this, is why is this important? Depends on the business environment you are in. Sprint, AT & T and Verizon are in a heated battle and all claim to be the best, so they’ll talk smack about each other to keep their customer base.
What are your best potential customers perceptions of who you are? In order for someone to consider doing business with you, they want to feel good about giving you their money. We now have the ability to research nearly anything and anyone that we are considering doing business with by going online. The same information that your current customers are sharing online is being read by your potential customers.
This is why your online reputation is critical. The difficulty is knowing what is being said and having the ability to respond in a timely manner.
I have a solution. I work for Federated Media in Indiana. Specifically for WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne. But I also have the ability to help you with one of the services from Federated Digital Solutions, our online division.
We offer a Social Engagement and Reputation Management Solution that can help you with all of your online reviews and social media activity including monitoring what others are saying about you. You do not need to be in Fort Wayne, or Indiana, just somewhere in the United States for us to be able to take care of this for you. Every client gets a custom quote for this service, because we only want you to purchase what makes sense for your business. Want more information? Drop me a note to: Scott@WOWO.com and we can begin the conversation about how to stay on top of all of this while you continue to run your business.
by Scott Howard | Jan 20, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Yesterday I kicked off a series on what to do before you buy any advertising. Today, we’ll expand starting with the first point:
You need to know who you are from 4 different perspectives:
- Your insider knowledge of who you are.
Knowing who you are and who/what your business is what will help you not just decide what to do with your advertising, it is a critical bit of information needed as you plan your future. If you are the founder of your company, you may have this information locked in your head. If you are further down the food chain, you need to do some digging.
Start writing stuff down. Not a detailed inventory list per say, but a list of the stuff you/your company does/sells/provides.
You will need to ask some pretty basic questions.
Such as:
What do we do?
What do we make?
What do we sell?
And then as you go along and jot down your answers, start asking additional questions:
Why do we…
How do we…
Where do we…
This is not a 20 minute exercise. This will take some time.
Dig deep. When someone answers a question, respond with, “Tell me more…”
Depending on the size and scope of your business, you may need to talk to several others and ask these questions over and over.
And always ask each person before you are done, “Is there anything else we haven’t talked about?”
Keep this process conversational, not like a cold, formal interview.
A day or two after each of these conversations and note taking exercises, go back to each person if possible and review with them the notes you took during your conversation and ask them if there is anything they would like to add.
Or if this is a solo exercise you are doing, put your notes away for a day or two and then pull them out and read what you wrote and see what else you would add.
Once you have completed this process, you will either have gained some insight on your business, or at least clarified your business model. Either way, it is important to have this knowledge.
You need to know where you are before you can map out a plan to reach your destination.
We’ll continue this tomorrow. Need help? Contact me.
by Scott Howard | Jan 19, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
There’s an old saying that “half of my advertising is working and the other half is a waste, but I don’t know which is which.”
Today, I am going to revisit a series I wrote on buying advertising.
In the rawest sense of what I do for a living, I sell advertising.
I work as a marketing consultant with a huge variety of options that I can sell you directly via WOWO Radio and our parent company Federated Media’s digital division.
But instead of convincing you to buy what I have to sell, I want to help you make wise decisions on spending money on advertising. I may be able to help you directly, or I may refer you to others who have the expertise and resources to take care of you. Over my couple of decades of doing this, I know quite a few trusted folks.
There are also times when I can give you wisdom that I’ve learned from others that won’t cost you a dime.
Too often I have seen businesses sign up to advertise with someone, somewhere, somehow for all the wrong reasons.
We need to take a few steps back in the process.
You need to know what you want to accomplish first.
You need to know who you are from 4 different perspectives:
- Your insider knowledge of who you are
- Your current customers perspective of who you are
- Your competitors perception of who you are.
- Your best potential customers perception of who you are.
Before you spend any money on advertising or marketing, you need to know where you are now and where you need/want to go.
So start with where you are now by digging into those 4 perspectives as deep as possible. Want help? Contact me.
by Scott Howard | Jan 14, 2016 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Yesterday, I shared a list of most of the advertising options, platforms and venues I can offer to you through my position at WOWO Radio and Federated Media.
Today, I want to offer you a challenge:
Do Less, Get More: Focusing Your Advertising
This is not contrary to what I shared yesterday, actually it goes hand in hand.
Over the years I have worked with hundreds of businesses with their marketing and advertising. I began in 1986 in Detroit and picked up again in 2003 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
You, as a business owner or manager are an expert at what you do.
You could be a lawyer, a plumber, or an I.T. company. (3 of the companies I have worked with recently). You are not an expert at marketing or advertising. But that’s okay, if…
If you have someone that you trust and is trustworthy to advise you with your marketing and advertising.
Some companies hire an outside advertising agency to take care of this for them.
Some companies hire an inside person and give them a title like Director of Marketing or Vice-President of Advertising.
Most companies however attempt to wing it on their own. And they get frustrated.
Frustrated because they know they need to do something to invite potential customers to spend money with them, but advertising and marketing services is not their area of expertise… wills and trusts (lawyer); unclogging drains (plumber); computer back-up and support (I.T.) those are their areas of expertise.
Frustrated because when you look for advertising answers, all you get is money hungry media salespeople telling you why you need to buy their stuff. That’s a salespitch, not advertising answers.
I’ve been in your shoes. When I worked full-time in social media, I had vendors trying to get me to pay them money for their “solutions”. I was looking for a partner, not a salesperson, and that was a rare find.
Since I’ve been back in the media sales world since 2013 when I joined WOWO and Federated Media, I set my own rules for how I would conduct business.
First and Foremost, I look to create advertising partnerships. My new business cards say: Advertising Sales and Marketing Consultant. I sell advertising solutions but most of my time each week is spent as a marketing consultant.
Which brings us back to the title of this article: Do Less, Get More: Focusing Your Advertising
Last year I helped a heating and cooling company reduce the number of different advertising outreaches they were doing. That was the Do Less part.
I also helped them Focus Your Advertising by selecting advertising choices that fit their brand and that could commit to for all of 2016. Most of these advertising choices are not new for them, but refined and better defined. They are building a stronger relationship with current and future customers by following my advice. This is the first step of measuring the Get More. As the year progresses, we’ll be able to look back and see how the Get More measured in sales and revenue.
I helped them establish a budget for the year, determine what criteria they should use to determine if an advertising option fit their brand and I also recommended several advertising options that had nothing to do with me, WOWO and Federated Media. Why? I want them to succeed and even though I could have found a way to spend all their 2016 budget with me, that’s not what was best for them this year.
Want some help? I have devoted a portion of the hours I am working in 2016 to share my expertise to help others Do Less, Get More: Focusing Your Advertising. Contact me.
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